Internet Protocol (IP) telephone communications systems and methods are known as discussed, for example, in: U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0146792 entitled “Voice Over IP (VOIP) Network Infrastructure Components And Method”; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0187900 entitled “Method And System For Providing Private Virtual Secure Voice Over Internet Protocol Communications”. The disclosures of each of the above referenced patent publications is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
As discussed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0146792, for example, voice telecommunications have traditionally been conducted via dedicated telephone networks utilizing telephone switching offices and either wired or wireless connections for transmitting the voice signal between the users' telephones. Such telecommunications, which use the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), may be referred to as circuit switched communications. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provides an alternative voice telecommunication system which use discrete packets of digitized voice information to transmit the voice signals. The packets are transmitted over the public Internet and/or within intranets.